


An Understanding

by ImperiusRex



Series: Namor Week 2020 [1]
Category: Invaders (Marvel), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Namor the Sub-Mariner (Comics)
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Gen, NAMORWEEK, Short One Shot, Talking, betty dean (mentioned), nazis (mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23830174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperiusRex/pseuds/ImperiusRex
Summary: Set during The Marvels Project, just after Namor and Jim fought and before Steve takes down Merrano. Jim Hammond has a talk with a reluctant prisoner.Prompt fic for Namor Week - Day One: Fire & Water
Relationships: Jim Hammond & Namor the Sub-Mariner, Jim Hammond & Steve Rogers, Namor the Sub-Mariner & Steve Rogers
Series: Namor Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717078
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	An Understanding

New York, 1940

The room they put him in wasn’t fire proof which could mean two things; one they didn’t have a fireproof room to keep him in. Or two, they wanted him to feel comfortable. Jim was willing to bet on the latter since the agent assigned to him hadn’t been hostile towards him. The room had a large table with a chair on one side, where he sat, and a two on the other side. The large mirror that was opposite him was the same as the ones in the police precinct he worked in. He counted the ceiling tiles again, there was nothing else to look at in the room. A few hours later the door opened and a thin frazzled looking man came in, he wouldn’t have looked out of place in a college professor's office, teaching students about some obscure subject no one cared about. He gives Jim a smile. 

“Hello Mr. Hammond, thank you for coming in at such short notice. Can I get you anything to drink? Eat? I apologize for keeping you here so long, but I can get you a coffee so we can chat.” He sets down his papers and pulls out a chair, “This won’t take much longer, Captain America has already vouched for you so we just want to get a record of your side of the event before we can wrap this up.”

Jim sits up at attention as though he was sitting before his police chief as the agent sat on the other side of the table. Jim hears a small cough that didn’t come from anyone in the room, he doesn’t bother looking at the mirror. 

“I don’t need to drink and I’m sorry but Captain who?” 

The Agent blinked owlishly before understanding came to his face, “Oh um yes, I forgot you were a ah…”

“Android.”

“Yes, that. It’s just… you look so  _ lifelike _ .” Jim presses his lips into a tight line as the awkwardness level in the room rises with the silence. The Agent starts to shift his papers around and then recalls Jim’s question, “Oh yes, Captain America, the man who helped you apprehend The Sub-Mariner. He’s just finished his report and he says you’re one of the good ones.”

“I suppose I’ll have to thank him when I see him.” Jim had barely spoken to the strangely dressed man a few weeks ago before the police and the army swooped in on the trio, hauling away an unconscious Sub-Mariner. The Torch stood beside Captain America a few moments, watching them taking Namor away. They had exchanged a nod before he holstered his shield securely behind his back and climbed into the back of the van that would transport Namor to a federal holding area. Jim refocuses his attention as the Agent begins his questions. Cooperating with them, he tells his side of the fight he had a few weeks back with Namor and how Captain America had come to his aid. 

It’s not too long before the Agent is satisfied with Jim’s answers, and tells him that if they need anything they would contact him at his home or the police precinct. He shakes hands with the Agent and leaves the room. He makes it to the end of the hallway and waits at the elevator. It opens and Captain America is standing there with his back leaning against the elevator wall, arms crossed. Jim nods a hello, and steps in. The Captain moves to push a button before Jim could and resumes his stance. Jim notices that the shield is gone and Steve has pressed a button to take them to a sub level. They descend in silence for a moment, unlike the Captain, Jim was dressed in civilian clothing, a neatly pressed red shirt and pants.

“I think I’m supposed to thank you for telling everyone that I’m not a threat.”

“Never said you weren’t a threat, only that you weren’t a threat to us.”

Jim takes that information in, “Where are we going? I thought I was free to leave.”

“You are,” Captain America straightens up when the door opens and Jim sees a shift in him, from just a man standing in the elevator to a soldier at the ready, “But I’m hoping you’ll help me out before you go.”

Jim follows him out and down a long barren hallway, “I’ve already heard the offer to join this new team, and I told them I needed to think about it.”

“Well it’s good you aren’t dismissing it right away, but this is a bit more… personal.”

_ Personal? _ Jim is a bit confused, but he follows Steve down the windowless hallway, passing thick steel doors that were evenly spaced until they came to the end of the hall, and Captain America opened the small metal covering that revealed a slot just big enough for one to look inside the room. Captain America steps back and Jim peers inside. It’s dark in the cell, the light that should have illuminated it no matter the time of day was broken, it’s bulb shattered on the floor. It takes him a moment but he eventually sees the outline of the cell’s occupant, Namor. The Atlantean was chained, heavy manacles encased his wrists and ankles, Jim winces at the sight of Namor’s ankle wings crushed by the restraints. The chains were looped through a metal fastening in the solid concrete floor.  Jim knew from experience that Namor was pretty freaking strong, he had felt every punishing blow of the Sub-Mariner’s fists during their last fight. There was no way that Namor would be here if he was at full strength. He watches Namor but the Prince’s face is in shadows, after a moment he closes the small window.

“He’s been here ever since they took him in?”

“Yes. We can’t let him go, what he did… he should answer for that.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ here?”

“But I understand why, he’s own people have been hurt by the Nazis. I spoke with Officer Dean. She had spoken to him before the fight, she had been trying to find you to warn you, she said you and Namor had something, like an understanding.”

“Betty’s a good cop. Does she know he’s here?”

“No, she would have demanded his release. I need your help. Nothing we have done, nothing we’ve said is getting through to him, he won’t speak to us, but he might to you.”

“Why? I thought Namor and I had an understanding but who can understand Atlanteans? I barely understand humans.”

The lingering bitterness from the earlier conversation with the Agent was riding Jim who had been feeling out of sorts since the fight. Unable to concentrate at his job. His recent visit with The Raymonds was messing with him. Now he finds the man who had been occupying his thoughts lately was a steel door away. Captain America gives him a long look. Jim almost feels like he is back in Horton’s lab and he had somehow disappointed his father again. He shifts. One of the negative human emotions is embarrassment Jim decides. He wasn’t good at dealing with it. The Captain sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose with a thumb and finger, suddenly he was less of a soldier and Jim could see that he wasn’t as old as he thought the Captain to be at first. The mask hid a lot, but it didn’t hide those tired blue eyes.

“I have to go, there’s something I need to see tonight and if my hunch pans out then we are going to need Namor on our side - stop.” Cap had raised his hand to silence Jim when he opened his mouth and Cap’s eyes were steady on Jim's from under his blue cowl “I know you say you need to think about the team, but regardless if you join or not, I think without Namor there things are going to get worse. He helped against the Nazis before, Officer Dean told us what he did. We are going to war Jim, and we need every bit of  _ firepower  _ we can get before it starts.” He hands Jim a key, and leaves.

The emphasis of firepower isn't lost on Jim as he watches the man in the star-spangled suit walk down the hall. He lets out a long sigh before eying the door apprehensively. Looks like he was going to have a talk with a water rat and convince him that if he played nice, he would get his freedom. Jim only hopes that when Namor’s chains do come off, he doesn’t attack everyone in the building.

The muffled voices had stopped. Namor tenses slightly when the door opens, but instead of the man in the ridiculous costume who had been coming to him these last few days it was someone else. Some one more familiar, blond hair catches the light of the hall as he enters, then darkness again as the door closes. A small flicker of light, and Namor sees the Human Torch has lit up his hand with flame. Namor ignores him as Jim looks around the room before moving to sit on the floor across from Namor as he keeps the fire going. The silence stretches between them. The fire makes the shadows play on Jim’s face, Namor doesn’t look at him, continuing to stare into the corner of the room.

“Come to gloat Torch?” Namor says softly.

“You would gloat if the situation was reversed, heck you have gloated.” Jim reminds him of their previous fights. The one on the bridge had almost destroyed Jim but he had managed to burn off Namor’s wings and hurt him enough that he had retreated into the water.

“I was reveling in my victory, of course I gloated.” Namor sneers at him, his hatred for this man burned in his gut. More so than other humans, Jim had humiliated him, had hurt him, and he was still living. It was unacceptable to Namor who had prided himself on his strength, on his victories.

“I thought we were past that Namor. I thought-”

“You were a fool to think anything gloworm, you are my enemy.”

“Am I? I know we aren’t friends Namor, but I thought we had an understanding.”

“I shook your hand to appease Betty, nothing more.”

“I don’t buy that. I don’t know why you want me dead, but that Captain said something about your people?”

Namor clenches his jaw hard, his hands ball into fists, and he wants nothing more than to lose himself in the violence of a fight, he knew from experience he won’t stand a minute against the Torch in his current dehydrated condition. Namor had only been given the barest amount of water to survive these last weeks. His people… Namor shuts his eyes for a second and sees them again, dozens of his people caught in nets like fish, their dead eyes stare at him, blaming him. If he had just defeated the humans on his first trip to the surface world then maybe he would have been able to save them, instead he got caught up in their war, he was distracted by Betty, by Jim, and now his people paid the price. His Grandfather’s cold abuse, the accusations and blame he laid on Namor’s head had never rung louder in his ears than in these last weeks of imprisonment. Alone with nothing to distract him from his thoughts Namor had replayed every mistake he made, and the one regret that weighs the heaviest was his weakness in the humans. The Torch is his enemy. Namor will not forget that. He watches Jim, notes the pensive look on the man’s face, the way his fire shows golden brows knitted together in thought, and a strong jawline. Blue eyes as pure as a crystalline sea is highlighted by the fire almost making it seem like sparks were in his eyes. Jim leans his head back against the bare wall, lifting the flame he watches it burn moving the fire over his fingers like a street magician moving a coin. Keeping the flame small, Namor watches it move.

“Why do you hate them Namor?”

He blinks, “Them?”

“The humans.”

“You are human.”

Jim shakes his head, “Android, I was created not born. Humans don’t burst into fire.”

It’s quiet for a while and Jim wonders why this Captain guy thought he could ever get Namor to agree to joining a fight for humanity when it was clear he hated humans.

“In Atlantis we had stories of humans,  _ ‘humans are ugly pale monsters, they can make fire out of things, and make explosives to set things aflame, they rape and pillage and murder each other for a scrap of dry land, they kill the earth and poison the sea.’ _ ” Namor recites it as though he had heard it a thousand times growing up, which he had, “It would not be a miss to think humans could set themselves on fire.”

“Oh they could set themselves on fire, it just wouldn’t end well.”

There is a beat of silence, then a deep chuckle begins to fill the cell, until Namor is loudly laughing at Jim’s joke. His head thrown back and the chains rattled as he settled himself, a few more chuckles before he subsided back into his previous demeanor. It startled Jim at first, he didn’t think the Atlantean  _ could  _ laugh, his face had been so hard, as though it was carved out of stone. Jim takes in Namor for the first time, and now that he actually has a chance to observe him Jim finds that Namor isn’t too bad, he was certainly strange looking with his pointed ears and strong eyebrows. Namor’s face changes for a microsecond and Jim sees one hand move towards his ankle before his fingers curl into a fist to stop it. It was as though he wanted to reach out to find some relief but was refusing to do so in front of Jim. The manacles don’t look comfortable at all, especially for a man with wings on his ankles. Jim moves himself until he is sitting next to a wary Namor, the flame is held up between them and both men take the measure of the other. They both weren’t fully human, and were as different as night and day, but there was something, a kinship between them. For now they were both too guarded to see anything but their differences and would be so for many years. Yet Jim knew what it felt like to be trapped in a place he didn’t want to be, the memory of his concrete prison was a shadow always hovering in his mind.

“I can’t stop you forever Water Rat, someday you’re going to get it into your head to hurt more people, or drown the entire world, and I hope to be there to not let that happen, but I don’t know what my future is going to be. You see Betty is right, there’s lots of evil in the world, but the good it is worth fighting for. I’m going to fight, I want you to come and help. You know Betty would want that.”

“You seek to play upon my feelings for Betty to aid you in this mess that you humans got yourself into,” Namor’s hard tone is raw and angry, he leans his face closer to Jim and risking the fire that could burn his impressive eyebrows off, “I will go to war for my people, for the ones lost and to stop any more from dying. The only thing keeping me from hunting down every Nazi bastard that had a hand in my people’s deaths are these chains.”

“You attacked me, what’s to keep you from doing that again?”

“My mind was clouded with anger, you were the nearest target that I could do something about, I had planned to flying to the other side of the world if I hadn’t been detained.”

Jim sees the honesty in Namor’s eyes, he had a feeling the man wasn’t one for stretching truths unlike other humans. Namor would kill him, but only after he dealt with the Nazis. The Torch was surprised to find he had made up his mind about joining this "invading" team, he didn't know quite when, maybe when he heard the raw grief in Namor's tone as he spoke about his people.

“If you were free, you would join us in the war?”

Namor’s eyes shone in the flickering light as he leaned just a bit closer, to intimidate Jim but the Torch didn’t move so Namor’s face was barely an inch away from Jim’s, he had to move his hand so the Atlantean didn’t get burned.

“Make no mistake Torch, I still hate you and your kind, but as the surface saying goes,  _ ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’. _ The Nazis are my enemies, you are their enemies, so I think we can come to an... understanding.”

“Not my kind, there’s no one in the world like me, but I have decided to stand with my people, and if you stand with us then yeah water rat, I think we understand each other just fine.”

Jim lets the flame in his hand grow and though Namor sweats it out for a moment, he eventually draws back. Jim doesn’t stop the fire, letting the smoke from it climb until it triggers the water sprinklers. The water rains down and Namor’s surprised expression turns to one of relief as he leans his head back and lets the droplets fall on his face. It isn’t long till Jim can’t maintain the fire anymore. Suddenly the door opens and the Captain stands in the doorway taking in the scene. He had been gone a few hours, and he had honestly expected to come back to fighting or Jim leaving. Namor crosses his arms and glares at the Captain. Jim stands up.

“Prince Namor, we need your help, we have an Atlantean in custody, someone called Merrano and-”

Namor snaps the chains off and drops them to the floor as he stands beside Jim, “Cease your blathering, take me to the traitor.” 

Jim follows Namor's long strides as they leave the Captain wondering just went on between them.

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of wanted to explore how Jim and Namor would have seen each other during this time. The Marvels Project seems to me to operate slightly outside of older canon because it makes it seem like Jim and Namor didn't end their first fight amicably with Betty, so I thought to mesh this scene in with the 616 and having a small character moment between them.


End file.
